The refrigerator refers to an apparatus that is used for the purpose of storing and maintaining freshness of food for a long period of time. The refrigerator has a food storage chamber, configured to maintain a low temperature by a refrigeration cycle for maintaining freshness of food.
In consideration of the different types, characteristics, storage periods, and the like of food, a plurality of storage chambers in a refrigerator may have different characteristics, so that a user may select a suitable storage method for the food. The representative storage chambers include a refrigerator chamber and a freezer.
The refrigerator chamber maintains a temperature of approximately 3° C. to 4° C. to store freshness of food and vegetables for a long period of time, and the freezer stores frozen food in a frozen state for a long period of time, and maintains a below-zero temperature to maintain the quality of frozen food, and to make and store ice.
In recent years, the refrigerator has been developed to perform various functions in addition to the aforementioned traditional functions of the refrigerator. For example, in the related art, to enjoy cool water from the refrigerator chamber, a user needs to open the door and take out a water bottle stored in the refrigerator chamber. However, in recent years, a refrigerator has been developed to include a dispenser outside the door, supplied with water cooled by cold air in the refrigerator chamber so that the user may obtain cool water without opening the door. Refrigerator having a dispenser with an additional function of purifying water have also been developed.
When a user intends to drink a beverage or water with ice, the user may need to open a freezer door and remove the ice stored in an ice tray in the freezer.
However, it is inconvenient in that the user needs to open the door, take out the ice tray, and thereafter, separate the ice from the ice tray. When the door of the freezer is opened, cold air in the freezer escapes to the outside, which increases in temperature in the freezer. Accordingly, because the compressor performs additional work, energy may be wasted.
Therefore, in recent years, an ice maker is suggested to supply the ice produced from the freezer to an outside of the refrigerator without opening the door.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the freezer F includes an ice maker 1 at an inner upper portion of the freezer F, configured to make ice using cold air in the freezer F, an ice bin 2 in the freezer F, separated from the ice maker 1 and configured to store ice made by the ice maker, a dispenser 4 on the freezer door 3, configured to dispense the ice to the outside without opening and/or closing the freezer door 3, and an ice chute 5 configured to guide the ice in the ice bin 2 to the dispenser 4.
However, a capacity of the freezer F decreases due to the volume of the ice maker 1. Since the ice maker 1 has a heavy weight (e.g., including the weight of a motor that drives the ice maker and the ice bin), it is inconvenient to disassemble and/or transfer the ice bin for other use and/or cleaning.
A conventional refrigerator/freezer unit may be disclosed in Korean Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-2009-0013540 (Feb. 5, 2008).